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| Life reconstruction of Maleriraptor kuttyi with the unaysaurid sauropodomorph Jaklapallisaurus asymmetricus, both from the lower Norian Upper Maleri Formation of south-central India. Ezcurra, Garcia, Novas, Müller, Agnolín & Chatterjee, 2025 Artwork by Márcio L. Castro. |
Abstract
Some of the oldest known dinosaurs and the first faunas numerically dominated by them are documented in the Upper Triassic–Lower Jurassic-aged Gondwana formations exposed in the Pranhita-Godavari Valley of south-central and east-central India. The Upper Maleri Formation of the Pranhita-Godavari Basin preserves an early-middle Norian dinosaur assemblage numerically dominated by sauropodomorph dinosaurs, including at least two nominal species. However, the preliminary report of a herrerasaurian dinosaur specimen indicates that this assemblage of south-central Gondwana was more taxonomically diverse. Here, we describe and compare in detail the anatomy and assess the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of the Upper Maleri herrerasaurian specimen. A unique combination of character states present in this specimen allows the erection of the new genus and species Maleriraptor kuttyi. Updated quantitative phylogenetic analyses focused on early dinosauriforms recovered Maleriraptor kuttyi as a member of Herrerasauria outside of the South American clade Herrerasauridae. Maleriraptor kuttyi fills a temporal gap between the Carnian South American herrerasaurids and the younger middle Norian–Rhaetian herrerasaurs of North America. Maleriraptor kuttyi shows the first evidence that herrerasaurs survived also in Gondwana the early Norian tetrapod turnover that resulted in the global extinction of the rhynchosaurs.
Keywords: Dinosauria, Saurischia, Herrerasauria, Norian, Late Triassic, Pranhita-Godavari
Dinosauria Owen, 1842 [Langer et al., 2020]
Saurischia Seeley, 1887 [Gauthier et al., 2020]
Herrerasauria Galton, 1985 sensu Langer, 2004
Maleriraptor gen. nov.
Etymology: The genus name is derived from the Upper Maleri Formation, in which the holotype and only known specimen was collected, and the Greek word raptor, thief, which is an ending usually used for predatory dinosaur genera.
Maleriraptor kuttyi sp. nov.
Holotype: ISIR 282, a first primordial sacral vertebra with its right rib and the base of the left rib, the distalmost portion of a right second sacral rib, a caudosacral or first caudal vertebra, an anterior caudal vertebra, right ilium, proximal and distal ends of right pubis and proximal end of left pubis (figure 1a, figures 2−5).
Stratigraphic and geographic occurrence: Upper Maleri Formation (early Norian, Late Triassic), Pranhita-Godavari Valley, around 1 km south of the Annaram village, south-central India (figure 1b,c). ISIR 282 was collected more than 40 years ago and we lack georeferenced data.
Diagnosis: Maleriraptor kuttyi is an early diverging dinosauriform that differs from all other Triassic archosaurs in the presence of the following unique combination of character states (autapomorphy indicated with an asterisk): centrum posterior to the second primordial sacral vertebra longer than each of the primordial sacral centra; ilium with a postacetabular process shorter than 0.6 times the length between the pubic and ischial peduncles, absence of brevis fossa, lateral rugosity of the iliac postacetabular process restricted to its posterior-most tip*; pubis with ventrally directed shaft; and pubis with a very poorly developed distal anteroposterior expansion.
Etymology: The species name commemorates the late T. S. Kutty, who discovered the holotype and co-authored its preliminary description with some of the authors of this study (M.D.E., F.E.N., S.C.).
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| Life reconstruction of Maleriraptor kuttyi with the unaysaurid sauropodomorph Jaklapallisaurus asymmetricus, both from the lower Norian Upper Maleri Formation of south-central India. Artwork by Márcio L. Castro. |
Martín D. Ezcurra, Maurício Silva Garcia, Fernando E. Novas, Rodrigo Temp Müller, Federico L. Agnolín and Sankar Chatterjee. 2025. A new herrerasaurian dinosaur from the Upper Triassic Upper Maleri Formation of south-central India. Royal Society Open Science. 12(5):250081. DOI: doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250081 [07 May 2025]
